Memorandum by the serbian socialis party upon the conditions in occupied Serbia

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MEIiGRAiroUII

BY THE SERBIAN SOCIALIST PARTY
UPON THE CONDITIONS IM OCCUPIED SERBIA

PRESENTED TO THE
RUSSO-HOLLANDO- SCANDINAVIAN COMMITTEE
IN STOCKHOLM

WITH A PREFACE BY

CAMILLE HUYSMNS.

SECRETARY OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST BUREAU

Issued Toy the Serbian Press Bureau, 931 Southern Bldg.,
Washington, D. C.

em

#&v n ists

,__^ . 931 Southern Building,

"7 ' Washington, D. C;,

-c May, 1918.

The following appeal is signed by two eye-witnesses of
the infamous acts of the Austro-Bulgarians in the occupied
territory of Serbia. The first of these, Dushan Popovitch,
permanent secretary of the Serbian Socialist party, has not
'left Serbia and since the evacuation of 1915, he was able
to see, on the spot, all that the invaders have done to ex-
terminate an entire people. The second, Katalerovitch, is
a deputy of the Socialist party. He took part in the retreat
through Albania but after arriving in Switzerland he decided
to return to Serbia. The Austro-IIungarian Legation at Berne
accorded him every facility and in the month of June, 1916,
he left for Kraguevatz in Serbia. M. Ke.tzlerovitch is a
Serbian "Zimmerv;aldian" and before returning to Serbia he had
violently attacked the Serbian Government and Parliament, de-
manding an immediate peace. The Wolff Agency hastened to re-
produce their attacks and exploit them against Serbia. M,
Katzlerovitch is therefore a witness particularly qualified
to tell the truth regarding the horrors of the Austro-Bulgar-
ian regime.

"Messrs. Popovitch and Katzlerovitch went from Serbia to'
Stockholm for the Socialist conference. The Central Powers
believed that the two 'Serbian socialists would play the game
of the internationalists and that is why they permitted them

to go to Stockholm. There the Serbian delegates, once they
had escaped- from the Austro -Germans, drew up this appeal to
the civilized world, to protest against the regime of exter-
mination practised in Serbia. They handed it in the month of
November to M. Camille Huysmans, who, in making it public,
thus described it in his introduction: "It is not a work of
hate; it is a cry of distress."

In view of the documentary value of this memorandum, we
publish it in its full form, regardless of the fact that we
do not share the political ideas expressed on this occasion
by the Serbian Socialist Party. As to the behavior of the
German troops in Serbia, described by Messrs. Popovitch and
Katzlerovitch as having been less barbarous than the Bulgar-
ian and the Austro -Hungarian, we make a point of issuing
herewith an account of the German military expedition in
Serbia by Oskar Maurus Fontana, a German writer and a Reserve
Officer who accoiEpanied the German army to Serbia.

SERBIAN PRESS BUREAU,
Voyslav M. Yovembvitcil:!

PREFACE.

The war has -uade three martyr nations: the Belgians,
the Serbs a^no. the Arruenians of Turt'ey.

Ger.uany has .„artyred Belgiurr. ; Austria-IIur.gary and Bul-
g&.ria have -iartyred Serbia.

Turkey has ..-iar tyred Ariuenia.

In all three countries tos agvressor has attacked an in-
offensive and defenceless population.

In Belgiuiu he has put to the sword hundreds of unar.isd
iucn, women and childrea.

In Serbia, he has been even inore pitiless. He has claim-
ed his victiras by the thousand.

In Armenia, his bestialty has knov;n no bounds. He has
killed v;ith Sadie fury.

B.ilgium has lost ;-)any civilians and will lose yet more
under a regime of insufficient feeding and unendurable op-
pression.

Serbia has lost practically the help o£ her population,
and unless im...ediate help is forthcoming, men, women and chil-
dren will die like flies.

Armenia, alas, can.".ot count the number of her viccimis.
Vi/ill she ever after the War be able to make a list of those
■i/Vho survived and v;c;re reduced to slavery?

The methods of murder and destruction have been applied
v;ith greater brutality and shamelessness in proportion as one
neared the East, v;here human life is held comparatively cheap.

The objects of the aggressor were not the same in ee.ch
case .

The generous Germany of Luther certc.inly did not desire
to exterminate the Belgians. To begin with, the latter are
too numerous.' But she wanted to punish them for their unex-
pected resistance. She v;as not a secular enemy. But she had
recourse to blood letting in order to terrorize the vanquish-
ed and to teach them docility for the future.

Catholic Austria has done nothing but carry on her tra-
ditional policy, . Her aggression of yesterday v;8s not acci-
dental. During the whole of the ISth Century, she has never
ceased to attack a young end gallant people, simply because

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it is conscious of its nationaJ strength. And the slaugh-
ter was compassed with the clear purpose of total destruc-
tion. In the Imperial Ari-iy, it -./as the Ser'os of Austria
who ^/ere al'vays sent for preference into ths fire, because
one wanted to get rid of thern - e.nd the Seros of Serbia have
been starved or hanged, interned or put in chains i/ith cy-
nically refined cruelty.

And the kindred Bulgars belonging to the ruling circles
have helped the Austrians in this uonstrcus taski They de-
sired to be revenged for pa,st defeats and they have re;uain-
ed deaf to the voice of the blood.

The Sons of the Prophet pursued an indenticc.l air:..
They, too desired the exter.r.ine.tion of a people. And, v;e
must £,di^it it, they have accorriplished it conscientiously,
like experienced scavengers. They have spared nothing. They
have considered neither a,ge nor sex. They have made a clean
sweep. They hr.ve carried out Sultan Selia's command to the
letter. To violence to the nen they have adied bestiality
to wou-sn amd even to children. And the Christians of Ger-
•r:.any have watched unuioved, this slaugiiter of the Christians
of Aritenia.

While attacking the huiua,n beings the invador has not
forgotten inanimate objects- He has sought to ruin the vic-

H

:y ne
deportation of Ic-bour.

One would think that the General Eecdquarters of the
Turks, Austrians and Ger:v:c.n3 were acting by agreement.

And how have they justified these abominations?

In Balgiuiii, they invented the legend of the franc-
fir eurs.

In Armenia, they invented the legend of conspiro-cies.

In Serbia, the Austrians invented nothing. They have
too much imagination to delight in the clumsy pseudo-
scientific imaginations of the German Government. Since the
days of the Agram trial they have acquired too much exp_er-
ience to re-edit a subterfuge v/hich brought upon thev:. tne^
moral censure of the whole of Europe. They have acted boldly,
without hypocrisy and, tc.king it all rounds, this attitude
strikes us as being the most decent. They have the courage of
their crii:.es.

I do not irean to hold the peoples of GerrLa.ny, of Aus-
tria-Hungary, of Bulgaria and Turkey responsible for all
this. I know what protests have rung through the Parlia-
ments of Berlin, of Vienna, of Budapest and Sofia. I an
convinced that thousands of I'lussulruans condemn the policy
of the Young Turks, and if proof is required I need only-
quote the touching pamphlet by Fayez El-Gosein, a Bedouin
of Hauran. But what matters is that the Socialists, at
least, of the Central Empires, should knovyand should act.
And th?4t is why my Serbian and American comrades have judged
it useful to do as we have done in Belgium. To what is left
of the civilized world they denounce wha,t has been done and
is being done and they appeal at least to the solidarity of
thou who lay claim to spare their ideals of humanity and
justice.

And if they are. told in reply that also on the other
side of the barricade there are deplorable conditions. If
they are told in reply, as I have already been told, that
prisoners have been ill-treated elsewhere, v/e shall declare
very clearly, that the Socialist protest must regard the
misdeeds of one side as v;ell as the crimes of the other. ^As
for me, I refuse to admit the axiom: "Krieg ist Xrieg", "War
is VJ'ar". This phrase is nothing but a covert form of moral
cov/ardice.

The Socialists have no right to take no interest in the
fate of other human beings.

For this reason I thank my friends Popovitch, Secretary
of the Serbian Socialist Party, and Katzlerovitch, Deputy in
the Skupshtina, for having written this pamphlet, which is
addressed to public opinion, ^vithout distinction.

It is not a work of ha.te,
It is a cry of distress!

Stockholm, December 10th, 1S17 .

CAMILLE HUYSL-IAWS,

« -

Secretary of the International
Socialist Bureau.

M E M 0 R A N D U M
By the Serbian Socialist Party
Upon the Situation in Occupied Serbia,
Presented to the
Russo-Hollando -Scandinavian Committee .

Opinions as to the culpability of Serbia in the present
war are divided according to TOether tae nolders of these
opinions belong to one or the other of the two belligerent
and enemy camps. But v/hat is past all discussion for both
parties is tha,t Serbia is one of the most sorely-tried vic-
toms of the world war. The burden of tne war as it has fal-
len upon this small and weak country is so crusning and so
bloody that there is no longer any equitable proportion be-
tween crime and punishment, even if we assume tnat Serbia
had committed the gravest faults. Still less can one take
up tnis view if one takes into account txiat during tne wnole
of last century the Serbian nation - an abstraction construct-
ed of secondary factors and responsibilities in tne third de-
gree - was in a state of legitimate defence a^^ainst txie bru-
tal policy of conquest on the part a great reactionary neign--
bouring State, namiely Austria.

The wnole world is more or less aware of tne great dis-
tress into which Serbia nas been plunged by the war, and of
the sacrifices entailed upon her by the latter, But vvhat is
known of it is very superficial and incomplete . Tne object
of our memorandum is to complete this general information by
facts and data collected in occupied Serbia, in order to show
the pressing need of speedy and efficacious help, both mater-
ial and moral for this country cut off from all tne world and
forsaken by it .

On trie Eve of the Occupation and during the

Catastropne .

Serbia had already suffered great losses since the first
year of the war. During the very first months of the war she
had to repel two great Austrian offensives, one in September
and one in November, 191^. Twice the existence of Serbia hung
only by a tnread and twice she parried the mortal blov;, But
these events entailed enormous losses as .veil among trie sol-
diers as among tiie civil population. Appalled by the horrors

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of T,h3 first Austro--Hun£:arian invasion in the neighbournooc:.
of the town of Shabatz and in order to esctpe from the enemy
troops v^hich vj-ere steadily venturing further, Serbian fami-
lies were compelled to fly wholesale at an unfavourable sea-
son, into the interior of the country.

This second invasion was followed by a terrible epidemic
which raged all winter and throughout the Spring of 1915'
Hundreds'^of thousanas of men (including 1^0 doctors) perished
principally of typhus. Tne result was tnat already in June,
1915, the total number of war victims reached tne figure of
500,000,

Then came in October, I915, the tnird invasion under
Mackensen,^ then the Bulgarian attack in tne flank. These
events were follov;ed 'oj the migration of a vvnole people -
women, children and old men - across tne Albanian mountains
which had hitherto known no travellers but entnusiastic ex-
plorers or blase adventuiers wlno no longer set any value
upon their life of boredom,. Tnis migration ^^■d.s made on foot,
through the terrific frosts of winter and autumn in the months
of November and December, Of 39,000 boys between IR and IS
years of age, taken away by tne commanders of the Serbian
army, 31,000 perished in Albania of cold and hunger., not to
speak of the considerable number of children, women, old men
and soldiers who succumbed tnere . In Corfu^ cholera lay in
wait for the famished and mortally exhausted soldiers. The
total ntimber of Serbian victims reached the figure of .300,000
and even of 1,000,000 according to the opinion of iirell in-
formed persons . This v;as already almost one -fourth of the
total popglaticn of Serbia according to the statistics estab-
lished after the" peace of Bucharest. The general statistics
included a considerable number of Albanians and Turks, vrhich
means that the rate of miortaiity among the Serb population
proper was even far greater. As for the Serbia that was in
existence before the Balkan wars and forms in every respect
the neucleus of the Serb nation^, one may say without exagger-
ation that pretty well one-half of her pcpalation had perished.

Nor should it be forgotten tnat tne fs^te of the Serbs
living Austria-Hungary .faring the war has been no better. The
policy of the ruling classes of Austria-Hungary nas been to
solve the Serbian Austrian during t^ie \Tar quite simply by ex-
terminating as many Serbs as possible. Tae soldiers of Bosnia,
Herzegovina, Dalmatia, those from tne old military frontier
of Lika, from Croatia, from Slavonia, tne Syrmia, Baohka and
the Banat of Temesvar - all of tnem. Serbo-Croat lands - were
sent where tne lignting was most dangerous, while a reglmie. .
of prison, the gibbet and famine were applied at home to
the rest of tne popula.tion. One need only read, for instance,
the speech delivered by tne Croat deputy Guide Hreljanovich

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a favir months ago in fcrie ?Iun^arian Farliti-rnsnt , concernin^^ ta3
bcirbarity prevailing in Bosnia-Herzegovina. T..13 epeec;., .
as also tlie most recent one t-y Dr. Antun TresiGii--?aviohitch,
in the Austrian Reichsrat, Octohex 17; 191?) contains the
most horrifying details. It .vas received in silence by the
Hungarian chamber, '.''e v;ill not dwell upon t..is further.
These facts lie outside our iurisdiction. ''"e leave it to
the Austro-Hungarian Social Democracy to fight this barbar-
ous Government"^ v;hose aim is to prevent all development
of the Serb pecole and to destroy its national conscious-
ness. We TJill merely state t;.e follov/ing. The Serbo-Croat
nation v;hich numbered more than ten million souls and whose
annual increase amounted to 100,000, has lost so many of its
members during this "\"ar of liberation" that it cannot hope
to reach its old figure before t.iirty years after the war.

The Occupation.

When in the Autum.n of I915, t..e conquerors crossed tne
Save, the Danube and tne Timok, all Serbia -..'as as it were
divided into t.vo. One part preoented ti^e melanc.ioly pic-
ture of a graveyard and t-^e otxxer t.ict of a nospital. Tne
invaders were no longer faced by a redoubtable adversary
whose resistance nad'to be broken, but by a sorely stricken
country which according to tue most elementary humanitarian
principles had a claim to be treated \vitn consideration.

It is true tnat Mackensen within tr^e first days of xxis
entry into the country issued a solemn proclamation in wliich
he invited the entire civil population to return quickly
to its homes and resume its ordinary occupations, because -
thus it v;as assured by tne famous General - the war would
not be waged against the peaceful population but against
armed and fighting forces. But these were only empty words.
Every Government of Occupation in Serbia has been nothing
but a permanent war upon the peaceful population. And more-
over it has not been a government of occupation at all bu^
rather a punitive expedition on the part of Austria- Hungary
and still more on that of Bulgaria, and this is the word
which m.ost correctly and most ccmxjletely defines the char-
acter of the Austro-Hungarian and Bularian domination in Ser-
bia. Serbia's enem.ies liave felt from the very first, instinc-
tively, that this country v^rould not remain permanently in
their possession. Therefore they made up their mdnds to
render Serbia altogether incapable of carrying on her exist-
ence . Unfortunately they have already partially accomplished
this task. It is therefore the duty of tue civilized world
to prevent them from carrying out their infamous purpose to
the end.

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P&,8 G-.j.?s of 'che Ge.rnia.n 'i' loops,

It v;as the G3?::;.an army wliicii diiring its march through
Serbia, in October, November and Decembsr of 19-- ^'^ furnished
the precedent for this horrible pjLicy, These troops did
not content themselves v;ith the forn'iidable bo'.it;y represented
by the vast proper-cy of the State abandoned every/ifhere in
the greatest disorder and ^'/hioh, a,ocording to the statements
of the German officers could only be compared with the booty
they reaped in Russia after the break through at Gorlicz .
Besides this, the Serbian people vras compelled to entertain
gratuitously and for seveial months these countless German
legions, for vifhomthe Balkans vvere merely a highroad on their
conquering advance towards Asia. Minor. The poor Serbian was
compelled out of his humble mea-ns to support the grandic-^e
plans of the German imperialists and to take part in tne real-
ization of their aims.

All that Was necessa.ry for the army p~nd very often much
that Was not, was so to say snatched out of tne mounts of the
population consisting mainly of women ana children, and that
without any compunction or compensation. It is trua txiat
sometimes they were given requisition tickets in exchange,
but this was done very rarely and a-lways in some non-valid
form, It happened for instance tnat poor ignort^nt peasants,
viThose last covir nad been taken were found in possession of
requisition tickets bearing tne following le.^end in German:
"Peter Karageors^evitca must pay" etc. But waat is worse is
that in most cases tne proper'cy of the public was ^sstroyed
without any necessity, out of pure spite. It v7ould be easy
to quote countless instances of tnis perverse and purpose-
less rage for destruction on the part of the German troops
with regard to tne property of the peasants, including cases
which fall within the scope of camp humour, but wnich really
cost the poor population too dear, I'le think it, hov/ever,
our duty to declare that on this occasion the C-erman troops,
although they did not in tne lea-st respect the property of
the people, never showed themselves barbarous towards the
population itself, 'fe do not know of a single case in which
the German soldiers were guilty of murder or outrage or
of beating anybody. If there have been such cases, they
v;ere eicceptional .

After the German hurricane had ipa-ssed, came "normal"
conditions. Order was established in Serbia. Let us see
what manner of order it -was, and is.

i

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A. The Re^-icn Qoo'-''TA^SkJ^':l-Jill°^LlJkz^!i^'!l'?jE^lZ-

The economic liie of Serbia had b<?en ai&orgaruaed and
subjected to strain even before t:-3 occupation, uore than has
been the case in a.ny of the otner belligerent States, A far
greater proportion of tae population was iKObili^ed in Serbia
than anyj^here else. The uhcle country v;aa -cransf ortned into a
veritable arned caap . After each enemy offensive and after
each epidemic the last remnants of the male population in the
to'.vns and villages v/as called up with the result that all the
labour that was^ lef t consisted of women, children and old men,
Belgrade, the economic and commercial centre of Seroia 'was
evacuated and abandoned by the population during the first
days of the mobilisation, because of its dangerous position
from a military point of view. The same thing happened through-
out the whole of Northern Serbia, the zone e::tending along the
Save and the Danube as well as in V.'estern Serbia along the
Drina. Thus during the very first days of the war, all econ-
omic and cultural life was brought to a standstill in the rich-
est regions of our country, because they vjere all of them trans-
formed into theatres of war and deluged with blood. .

At the moment of the catastrophe a great emigration took
place there among that part of tne population wnich was best
fitted for economic production. People left their homes,
their workshops, their affairs and tneir fields en m.asse to
go across Albania into txie unknown world.

And what did the "beerers of culture" do under t.aese con-
ditions? To the terrible burden of the war wnicn was already
weighing heavily upon the population, they added the brutality,
spoiliation and corruption of a regime of cccupa^tion and by
their robbery brought all Serbia to economic ruin, What tne
Germans failed to "put in order" during their snort stay of
a few months, the Austrians and Hungarians nave tidied up to
perfection within two years.

Austria- Hungary loves above all things to lay stress upon
the order-creating side of her activity in Serbia. The great
neighbour state wished to prove to the whole \7orld that her
historic mission consists in curing the "fierce and rebellious"
Serb nation of "politics" and educating it into habits of econ-
omy and industry, Nov; what has Austria-Hungary done during -Cae
last two years in order to encourage and stimulate the develop-
ment of the economic and productive resources of Serbia?

More than I50 , O0'^_C2:riJAB^^jM^.II^^ AusJ-rianr.^

The first act cf taa ..Gov3r-r.ient of cociTi,d.tion was to
intern in Hungarv and Austria mo::s t:.dn I9O.OOO persons be-
longincr to the orvil population for no re-.soxi ana wi-caout
aS? Slitary or poli-oloal necessity. Hereby Serbiawas ae-
prived of the last reserves in the way of labour wnicn v-ex.
still at her dis-oosal and countless f amilxeo ^los 0 txieai
last support. Hundreds of tncusands 01 cnia.aren, wom.n <^na
old men .vere tnus ocndeiTined to die of starvation. ^-^ evon
■more horrible fate was in store for tnose wno v^^re _ inxdrn..a
and the country v;as completely depuded of tae wotK^ng popu-
lation wnich alone could have nelpod it to carry on. i^.^
was the first and the most jmportart ac. of tne laxxtary
Government in its work of economic ana cultural •Tc.crgcvii.a"
tion" of occupied Serbia. In the meantime "cnis policy of in-
ternment is one of the cruellest chapters in tne vwc^e nis-
tory of the Governm.ant of occupation and we will spealc 01 it
presently in greater detail.

Pil laFce and Economic Ruinj_

i^fter having seised upon the last remnants of the c oun-
try's 'resources in labour, tne Military Government proceeaea
similarly to requisition and it does so still unremittingly -
everything- indis-osnsable for produ.ction, alx maosrial^without
which the future' development of productive resources is al-
together impossible. Serbia's most important factories nave
celsed to exist; the machinery has been dismantled ana trans-
ported across the frontier, together with everytnmg in tne
way of tools and raw material, V'orkshops v/ere similarly deal..
With.

Most of tne shops were pillaged in the same way. The
peasants are deprived of tne last of tneir carts, norses and
oxen. These poor Tjeoplo are compelled to furnisn tne Mili-
tary authorities regularly wita draught animals ana other
cattle, even if they do not possess any. Tne re nave oeen
cases in wnich small peasant farmers nave witnm eignteen
months supplied the Austro-Hungarian aucnorities witn i it teen
oxan. They mu.st find tiiat ozan even if txiey don't own onem
at' all. Tn tnat case tney have to buy it at top prices or
obtain it surreptitiously at the risk of their lives on tne ^
other side of the Morava in Bulgarian territory. It is tneir
business to know where to find it but tne animals have to be
furnished, otherwise the peasant or tne comraune in question
are compelled to pay a fabulous fine. It goes without saying
that in consequence of this policy, Serbia, wnicn is ricn m

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cattle and produce irraoh live st.jok will soon ba drprivfto. of
it altogether. Ths p?^\,3anr, ca.i no loviger fill liic fie-Z.d, the
artisan returns to find an empty workshop and the working man
has to go Uneir.plcyed because, of all tre factories , nothing
is left but the v.'slls, ETon assuming that after this war of
extermination, there would still be hands capable of v;ork in
Serbia, the necessary material for work will be altogether
lacking. This is the state of ''economic iMprcveraent" in Ser-
bia under the regime of the Austro-Hungarian Government of
occupation .

Serbian Forests cu,t down to tne last tree

The axe is likevifise a very important instrument in tne
spreading of Austria-Eun£.ary culture. It is a favourable tool
of the policy of occxipation and a most po»verful lever for en-
couraging economic development in tna conquered acmain. The
great predilection of Austrians and Hungaria-ns for timber is,
by the way, alrea.dy known by tne example of Bosnj.a. Moreover
there is nothing extraordinary or amazing in tnis, since for-
ests represent the best source for acquiring wealth to parve-
nue capitalists and adventurers in all colonies . It is pos-
sible to guage the extent to wnicn one country bears tne cnar-
acter of a colony towards another by tne figures of the export
of timber and its by-products. In this respect, Bosnia stood
remarkably nigh v>fith regard to Austria. Just novv it is Serbia's
turn, ^hat is being done today in Serbia as regards her forests,
which are such an essential resource of a country like ours, is
not merely exaggerated exploitation but dov?n-right and complete
devastation. Here is an example'. The Rogot forest, which was-
owned by the State was a very beautiful old and dense forest
in the very heart of Serbia. It was worth several millions.
Today this forest no longer exists; it has been cut dovirn to the
last tree. A wide and desolate expanse marks its form.er site.
All the other forests of Serbia, some even larger and more val-
uable, like those of Kopaonik, Tara and Rudnik^ have suffered
the same fate , The sullen thud of the Austrian axe in the "
depth of the ancient forests of Shumadia rings like the blow
of a hammer upon a coffin.

"Requisitions . "

And v;hile on the one hand the felling of timber proceeds
apace, we have on the other nand the systematic and unintermit-
tent expropriation of all tnat belongs to tne population. This
goes by tne name of "requisition", Almost all tne proaucts of

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the country even these which t-re indispensajle in evsry house-
hold, m&tal utinB.J:;, ^tc. , ais rec^uisiticnec'. ur.cor_ta3 prs-
tszt of S3rvir.7. nilitciry neeclc . And Ghcy are piid for at
absurd rates l indsed, all this is Gnly a v,3?.l3d xoxrci of_ex- ^
propriation. The vdiole of the harvest is similarly requisi-
tioned, '"heat is paid at the rate of [■)< Austrian crowns per
100 kilogrammes. Dried prunes, one of Eerhia's most impor-
tant er.port products, are paid for at the rate of 10 crovrns
per 100 kgs . and that at a time /d^en the Croatian Government
is supplying the municipality of Vienna, by contract, with
the same kind of prunes at a rate of 50 cro-vns per 100 kgs.
Brandy, too, is requisitioned at a rate of from '10 to 5^'
crowns, to, be resold later on to the innkeepers at rates of
from 200 to 250 crc.vns, and the superior qualities even at
500 crowns per 100 litres. Oxen are paid for a.t 1,60 per
kilogramme. And the peasant is not even entitled to be pre-
sent v;hen his ox is .veighed '. This is the business of the
officers and officials wno by reducina; tae weight^to be paid„
for by one-half or tnereaoouts, uake h. very good tiling out of

it indeed. Most of the requisition tickets bear, generally
speaking, a round number such as 100,150., 200 kgs., #hioh is
already in itself a clear indication of this official robbery
on a vast scale. Figs are bought for 1,50 '^o 2 crovi/ns per kg.
v;hereas in Austria-Hungary they fetcn from 6 to 7 crowns. Ap-
ples, another iraporta.nt export article, are paid for at txie rate
of 25 to 4-0 crowns per 100 kg. to be resold at once for SO to
100 crowns in Austria-Hungary. Nuts are requisitioned, like-
wise potatoes, beans, fruit, vegeta.bles, eggs, - in one word,
everythinfj; .

Official robberies.

An elaborately subtle system of fines pursues the sa.me
object. They are not a penalty imposed in the general inter-
est of the community in order to enforce compliance with pre-
scribed regulations, but a fresh means of despoiling the peo-
ple and helping the military and civil employers to get rich
quick.

Last summer, many inhabitants of Belgrade were compelled
to pay fines ranging from 1000 to I5CO cro^^'/ns for having ex-
ceeded the prescribed allowance of water by a few litres. Vil-
lage administrations are sentenced for mere nothings or under
perfectly ridiculous pretexts to pay fines of 2,000, 5,000 or
5,000 gold ducats (between ^,^00 and 12,000 dollars). Even
peasants have to pay their fines in golc. or in cash. The in-
tention is obvious. The Serbian peasant is to be deprived of

-13-

the last grain of gold leit to him, pernc*.p&, ircin tno good, old
times of the age of iDatr.l'-ironal co;umunism , Sonetimes t;)'^ au-
thorities go so fa?? in tiiis avidity to obtain gold, that e„ g.
they presumed one day to force tne safe of a vTe 11 -known mer-
chant in Belgrade in order to seise the 2C00 "napoleons'' de-
posited there and to reimburse him for tne same at tne rate of
2o crowns apiece at a time when their value on tne market was
70 crowns. And this is not an isolated case ', But let no one
misapprehend our purpose , V.'e have no intention of bewailing
the fate of the Capitalists, who have more tha,n one opportun-
ity during tne war to recoup themselves for losses sustained
by a tenfold larger gain. We merely wish to point out that
if such proceedings are permitted against the well-to-do cit-
izens of Belgrade^ the fate of the peasant in villages remote
from the capital, the poor peasant handed over at discretion
to the unlimited and tyrannical power of the local gendarme
must be even more pitiful ,

As regards the forcible deprec'iat.i_on_pf the rate of ex-
change for Serljian money it is neither more nor less than rob-
bery under arms. No sooner had Serbia been conquered than an
order appeared directing under threat of the severest penal-
ties, that the Serbian franc (dinar) was not to be worth more
than half an Austrian crown. As the inhabitants possessed no
other kind of money they were obliged to circulate the Ser-
bian which passed in this vmy at an absurdly low rate into
the hands of the Austrians, Germans and Eulgars , In this way,
both the authorities and private persons could induDge in most
lucrative speculation in Serbian money which, thanks to the
high standard of the metal, is wortn twice as m.uch as Austrian
money in the international market.

Even today you can, in Austria, privately change 100 Ser-
bian dinars for something over 120 Austris.n crowns. The loss
caused in tnis way to the Serbian popula,tion, especially to
the poorer people who cannot, like tue rich, afford to hold
back their money until the most propitioxjs moment, is enor-
mous and amounts to many m.illicns . Tne saddest part about
this speculation is that tne poor women, children and old men,
forsaken by all the Virorld - had nothing but their little sav-
ings to fall back on and v^ere thus compelled to reduce by naif
the small amount of food tney had so far been able to procure ■
All these refined methods of exploitation must obviously end
by exhausting what is left of the wealth of the ccontry. In
many cases moreover this exploitation is practised openly,
brutally and in the most barefaced fashion, Especially during
the earlier months of the occupation, it was the custom to
force the doors of houses or shops belonging to absentee Ser-
bian citizens, and to seize everything that happened to please

-13-

any officer, police agent or police spy that came along. _
Many privat4 dwellins;s ., espsc:.ally in Belgrade, v/sre looted
in this way. Everything wa.s taken, from the linen ana the
furniture to the :oianoG, which were generally sent across the
Save as "war booty'' for the wives end mistreBses of tne Austro-
Hunearian officers. The People ''s Hoxise, the property of our
Party was not spared oy these robbers and murderes . During the
first days of the oocuiDation, several articles were removed and
many especiallv books, destroyed- Only four months ago tnese
eentiemen presumeC, t;-; enter our People's House without any "by-
your-leave" and to oa:c::v off everything thct was left, witnout
leaving any requisiti:)^ tickets. Hereby cur Party, which is
poor lost more than SO, 000 dinars in Belgrade alcne , Ve are
by no means an:ciou£ t"? plead our own grievance in particular.
T.d have merely quoted this instance as an illustration of the
sad state of 'affairs in Serbia, From tne fact that such attacks
,are permitted upon the property of a political organization,
which as everybody knows, maintains international relations and
enjoys, so to say, international protection, one may easily con-
clude what sort of fate is reserved for the population which is
protected by nobody. .

Briefly, then, the economic .tosses sustained by Serbia >. '.
during the war -■ before and especially du;.-inR- this disastrous
occupation are so great that the restoration of the country
cannot be considered anything but fictitious unless it is cul-
minated by collective financial assistance organi^.ed on gen-
erous lines, over and abov 0:M_iLejKmsjt ijbut_ior^^

ical independence. This "financial assistance is the only means
of retrieving the country from ruin and restoring it to its for-
mer standard of existence.

2j, The Food Policy...

And what compensation does the Austro-~H;.ingar.ian Military
Government offer the Serbian population in order to make amends
for all its sufferings? After requisitioning everything does
it at least guarantee the people the minimum necessary to sup-
port life?

Wot at all. On the contrary, everything is organized and
calculated in such a way that tne population is doomed to die of
starvation. Serbia is by nature a rich country wnicn can easily
feed its population. But for the moment tnis country is split
up into military and administrative districts vmich, as regards
the exchange of foodstuffs are separated from eacn other by ver-
itable Chinese walls. All exchange of foodstuffs between Mili-
tary districts is strictly forbidden and it would be easier for

-14-

a camel to pass tiiroagh the eye of a neello faan for an egg
to pass from one district into another in derb:...^ The Diot-
rict Commanders dispose of unlimited powers as regards the
distribution of foodstuffs in their districts and in this
respect they are responsible to no one, not even upon their
own Government. The result is that the v^hole indispcndable
interchange of foodstuffs between t he various pai-ts of Serbia
has become impossible and that the whole surplus produce of
any one part of the country, which could and ought to be em-
ployed to supply the needs of some other region is immediately
exported to Austria-Hungary. Thus the authorities have ended
by creating an artificial shortage of foodstuffs vmich Is
then exported by the District Commanders themselves, by the
Government officials and their civil agents, m the interests
of the most shameless speculation. In this v/ay certain of-
ficers and shady civilians grow richer from day to day while
hundreds of thousands of Serbian women, children and old men
lack the necessities of life and are in the grip of the most
appalling famine. Austrian shops, or rather food cards are
therefore tne only remaining resource of tne population.; but
only too often one fails to get even tne quantity one is en-
titled to by the card. This system, too, has become, a field
for speculation. It is known for instance, that Austria-Hun-
gary has never had any reason to complain of a salt snortage .
Yet tnis has not kept the Serbian peasant from being left for
months together without salt under the pretext tnat tnere
was none. Although there was still plenty in tne shops. And
while the peasants were being refused salt, Austrian agents,
soldiers and non-commissioned officers, were selling that
same salt, ostensibly surreptitiously, at the rate of S, 10
and 12 crowns per kilogramme . Any one who knows tne impor-
tance of salt for agriculture and especially for stock-rais-
ing will readily understand why the peasants were ready to
part with all their produce at ridiculous prices for the sake
of obtaining a little salt.

As for the bread ration, it is the same in Belgrade as in
Austria (e.g. not equal to the bread ration in Hungary). In
spite of this for months together the population of Belgrade
received under the name of "flour" merely a special mixture
which could neither be made into bread nor cooked, nor eaten
and which produced much sickness among the population. As re-
gards the interior of Serbia, there are places v;here the bread
ration is even more misere.ble. Thus, last spring, the unfor-
tunate peasants of Baina Bashta rece:lved only one kilogramme
of maize per inhabitant during one whole month. It may be
imagined from this, what ration they will receive this 'rinter
ind next Spring.

-15-

STARVATION IN BELGRADE .

Tills food, (ox .Tcitriar starvt^tion) policy, is xaost elo-
quently discernible in tne faces of the inhabita.nts >^f Bel-
grade. In tiiis town it is absolutely impossible to buy any-
thing no matter what. It is only exceptionally and at fabu-
lous prices that one^Can obtain a little fat, eggs, potatoes
or beans. One can also get a little meat ana tnat at prices
which, compared to tnose ruling in Austria and Germany, are
not even very high. But as the population almost through-
out tne country is absolutely deprived of the means of earn-
ing a livelihood, tnese prices are relatively high. In Bel-
grade you see hundreds of people waiting outside the shop
which sells meat. But as the ainount of this offal (feet,
tripe, entrails, etc.) is very limited, it nas become such
a delicacy that people consider themselves lucky if they suc-
ceed in getting some once or tvTice a month. For the present
population of 50^0^0, the municipality of Belgrade furnishes
from 2,000 to 3^000 litres of milk during the summer sea-
son and only a fevv' hundred litres in winter. Thus only per-
sons who are seriously ill and quite young children receive
a quarter of a litre of milk (half a pint) a day, and that
only after many difficulties and most complicated procedure.
Last spring - and spring is tne best season for vegetables -
the '.weekly allowance was only 157 grammes of vegetables for
every inhabitant. One really fails to see how these people
manage to keep alive. Thousands of women, children and old
mer roam desperately day and night along the high roads and
through the surrounding, sometimes very distant villages,
in order to procure a little food. Meantime these expedi-
tions are severely forbidden. You can buy nothing in the
villages, neither monopolized produce, nor anything else.
An order has been publisned in Belgra,de v/nereby every v;oman
caught in the act of buying food is sentenced not only to
arrest but to be beaten with a stick. Tne food prices
fijced by tne authorities are such txiat no peasant will fur-
nish provisions at that price. That is precisely what is
wanted by tne men in power. It is tney who go to tne vil-
lages and buy up all tne previsions at tne fixed prices and
export tnem to Austria. Their policy as regards food prices,
instead of helping both consiomex and producer, is directed
agciinst both and pursues only tne sole object of robbing
and ruining tiie country, and that is vJhy Belgrade, the cen-
tre of a ricn agricultirral country, tnere is greater dis-
tress and famine than in Vienna.

The desperate plight of the population of Belgrade de-
termined Dr, Veljkovitch, Mayor of Belgrade, Mr. Peritch,
Professor at the University and several others to submit a

-16-

.i:ien:orand.ur;: to Colonel Kerschnawi, Chief of Staff of the
ililitary Goverr.r.-.ent . The rsquasts einbodied in this meno-
randura v/ere very iriocieat. The petitioners requested in the
first place the siraplif ication of the extremely lengthy
and complicated procedure v/hich the inhabitants of Belgrade
have to go through in order to obtain permission to travel
into the interior and that this permission should not only
be granted to a feiv privileged Gpeculators, but to all -vho
stood in need of procuring a feu provisions. The Govern-
ment was furtht-r b?s;r;ed to modify the policy of maximum
prices. And finally the petitioners requested that the
municipality ox Belgrade should itsjlf be permitted to
purchase the fixed quantity of cattle to be slaughtered
in order to prevent the military Intendance from speculat-
ing in this article of food. The intendants sometimes sup-
plied the municipality vxith animals the entrails of which
weighed 43 kg. while the whole of the meat weighed 37 kg.
This memorandum, however, struck the authorities as being
an exceedingly suspicious document. First, iiayor Veljko-
vitch was sumr/ioned to the police station where he was of-
ficially questioned as to his real intentions. Then fol-
lov/ed^ after a long interval, an interview \/ith Colonel
Kerschna\tfi which was extremely brief and frigid. As a
matter of fact, it v^as only Colonel Kerschnawi who spoke.
He declared that the Memoreuidum was not correct in its
statements, that the population did not suffer from a
short£v.^e of food, tha.t e-g, his '.vife bought aD.l her pro-
visions in Belgx-j.do, r^ i shcAxt any Cifficult^ an:, v btv olie.r.p-
ly and he wound up by saying these matters did not concern
the Municipality, but the Military Government. Upon this
statement the interview came to an end.

In order duly to appreciate these incidents \re must
not forget that Mayor Veljkovitch is an ex-Iiinister and
chief of a party v;hich is in opposition to Mr, Pa^shitch
(Prime iviinister of Serbia) and not at all hostile to Aus-
tria-Hungary, while I'lr . Peritch is a convinced Austrophil
and generally knov;n as such. In 3pite of this they were
both of them and especially Dr. Veljkovitch, so badly used ,
that the latter found himself obliged to tender his resig-
nation. It goes without saying that the authorities stand
even less on ceremony v:ith the Socialist rabble. One of
our comrades, To'-rn Councillor Mika Spassoyevitch, presumed
last year in very moderate terms to criticise this policy
of starvation and to demand bread for the people. Although
over 70 years of s. ge, he was at once arrested and interned
in Hungary,

-17-

This intolerable situation is further aggravated by
tha a.rcsi2ir.g Ociilou.^i.ess Ghown by the authoi'ities and the
Austro-Hurigariaii batiks. As Serbia is today dsprived of
all ecouoiiiio life, everybody in the country lives vjholly
upon, uhat relief reaches hiin from abrooxl. People live
upon ivhat they receive frori Switzerland and France, from
thjir relations or friends, or frorr, charitable ixiissions.
Nov; in this latter respect, Serbia has been overlooked by
all the rt'orld. Tv/ice only, in 1916, did missions - one
A;uerioan cuid one Swiss - coL.:e to distribute food and cloth-
ing aiuong the -population of Belgrade. The lioney received
fro'^ relations in Svjitaerland a:id Fre^nce is therefore the
one vital resource of the Serbia::! population. The suu.s
V7hich the feithers of faiuilies heive hitherto been able to
send are very insignificant in co'uiparison to the needs of
the population. Collectively, they only ai/ounted to about
t-ienty million (francs) in tv;o years.' nevertheless, this
3U.L-. represents a very great deal for :/.any far;iilio'), all the
Tuore as 'chey receive no other help. In the lueantir-ie the
Austro-Hungarian banks and authorities are so cruel o-nd so
devoid of all conscience that they do not hesitate to delay
the pay.uont of these suras for raonths together. There have
been cases in v;hich buus despatched from Sv;it3srland or
France in Septe.-.ber, 1S16 v;ere not paid out in Belgrade be-
fore uarch or April, 1917 - after sii-c Licnths of speculation.
It IS really superflous to explain once riore that the posi-
tion of the population of Belgrade will be terrible this
winter and next spring, if these ppor people are coiiipelled
to live I'.'i thou t i Jon ey .

So far they have, at any rate, ;i,anaged to exist, or
rather to vegetate, painfully, \;ith terrible suffering ?.nd
a vast phyijio logical deficit, the dangerous consequencesof
v/hich T.v'ill not iJiake theiAselves felt until after the vjar .
But for this winter and next spring, the population will be
even more cruelly tried, because the liilitary Government suc-
ceeded in organizing ci perfect systv^m for seizing this year's
harvest (1917) to the last grain from the Serbian population.
All, for positively all is at this moment exported, so that
there is nothing left for the native population but to fold
its hands and die of starvation.

Help, as prompt and extensive as possible is urgently
needed if this people for all that it is endovi^ed vjith great
vitality is not to be doomed to die of starvation, under
most terrible conditions.

-18-

5. THE POLITICAL SITUATIOII.

Logically enough, 'cha aconouuc misery of occuioied Ser-
oia is ooaiplsted by political slavery.

Of couroe arxy kind of public right is out of the ques-
tion. Wo foriii of collective life is possible in Serbia at
the moment. All organi2£i,tioas, including ^:rof essional, co-
operative and even charitable associations are prohibited.
Anyone daring to try to forra any kind of association v-zould
be inuediately inteiDed, and perhaps subjected to an even
more terrible fate Irjmediately upon his arrivcil, the first
Military Governor of Serbia published an order rigorously
prohibiting all politics in the country. It is not diffi-
cult to imagine what a reactionary and military government
would understcind under the- term of "politics" . There is
only one printing office in Belgrade today, the one v;hich
is run by the Military Governor General and publishes the
"Beogradske Novine" (Belgrade Ilev/s). All private print-
ing offices have been closed often haviiig been looted.
Neither rr.achinery, nor any other ma'cerial is left: it is
even forbidden to print menus. A printing press - accord-
ing to the expression of the local authorities -,is equal
to a.n enemy arsenal. If a Serb citizen i^exe to be so bold
as to solicit permission to edit a paper, he v/ould at once
be entered in the blacklist of the Government. It is for-
bidden to make use of the Serbian alphabet in public traf-
fic, including the post. Needless to add^ all political
activity is prohibited, as it is even dangerous to say
openly \vhat one thinks and even to have independent thoughts.
Quite harmless humdrum citizens, ignorant peasants and
even gossiping women run the risk - if their harmless and
naive conversation is overheard and reported by spies -
of being sent off to internment camps, to prison, or even
the gallov/s.

TERROR I Sl/l IN SERBIA.

The most elementsi-ry ri£:hts of man, are not guaranteed
in Serbia, In the villages, the gendarmes v7ield unlimited
pov/er and lord it over everybody. Their u.ethods of pro- ■
cedure are an admirable reflection of the system applied
by the Austro-Hungarian adm.inistration to the subject nat-
ionalities. Espionage, denunciations, exactions of all
kinds, theft and sometimes even murder, are typical of the
behavior of the gendarmerie in the villages. In the towns
these privileges are enjoyed by the army officers and non-
comraissioned officers. In manv towns official notices are
posted UP directing that the whole native population men.

-13-

wnn^n. c^hildren and old_nea ^^y'^y^lio o vex their hea^M^

nfviopi-a UBi-ip- their horse v/xir/ps upox-?. reoels v;ho ic.il to
Sompir't o'cl wi^h these orders. Indeed oudgellinsa have
SecoS a v.eans of eduo.txon in which ^fi,%^^^f^J?-;^^^f f ^^^ '
civilizators take a special delight, Tnis penalty -s ap-
plied on every occasion and under the ■u.ozz aosura pretexts.
Two Belgrade college students -.-ho had been compelled by w.nt
to become tram conductors, were eacn sentenced .o f °^J^^
75 blows with a stick for having railed to salu.e a ^suoaloern.
The poor lads fainted three tiroes and each tine the oeatmg
V7as recommencsed. After they had been subjec.ea .o this
shameful punishment they were kfPt in prison for a mj^n.h
and then interned in Hungary. In the prefecture of Police
in Belgrade, a certain Lieutenant Wxedmann en^o^B animated
power over the lives and liberties of all the mhacitants.
It depends only upon his tyranny whether any given mnabi-
t of Belgrade is arrested, cuffed, beaten w: tn a_s.xci:,

tant of tiexg

how.

and above all, interned, which, as we shall preeertx/
is indirectly sentence of death. All Belgrade r.ae - and
that often in the literal sen,^c. of the word - pacced through
the hands of this gendarme, from ex-Ministers to tne num-
blest day-laborer. There is soc-.rcely a person m Belgrade
who has not had cause to complain of having been -ma.fGreaoed,
insulted and outraged in his m-st saured fao-.ings by this
Austrian Gessler v;ho behaves thus without any p^ausiole pre-
text and without any offence on the part of those ^^lom he
pe-^secutes. Serbia knows no personage more hateful tnan
this tyrant - which circumstance has not preventf.d him from
retaining his post ever since the beginning of the occupa-
tion. It is. the r fiFore, not a case of _.an_.exce.|jt2-on or an
g.oniden-bal ri-dstake". but on the contrary,.../c.hJ.^_;ra;rlb;^e_iji-
rii;rj_r;-'ij3-; per sonifies an entire svst^im. This fasnion of
i^treation, the Serbian citizens, of reducing them to the
level of mere cattle, to enslave them as completely as pos-
sible and to let them constantly feel their degradation,
constitutes the very essence of the Austro-Hungarian occu-
pation in Serbia. The name o£. Lieutenant Wiedmann will
dwell in the memories of future generations as the symbol
incarr.ate of Austro-Hungarian "Kulturtraegerei" in Serbia.

The courts exist not to pre^'ent all this robbing and
tyranny, but to increase them. Fot o-a^ Austro-Hungarian
officer accused of theft, e-zaction, outrage or murder,
has ever been conviobed, alxhougii these crimes are of daily
occurrence. It is even dangerous to lodge a ccrAplaint a-
gainst an officer or an official- Anyone endea.voijng to
defend his property, nis honour, or his life,, even in the
rcost harmless vj'ay, is at once arrested, bea.ten, interned.

-20-

It v;ould. be easy to quote countless instances of such
excesses. The arrests of perfectly inr.oceiit citizens and
their being sentenced to incarceration amd even death is one
of the most ordinary occurrences. The most iraportant aux-
iliaries of ohe courts, and indeed of the whole adiainistra-
tion in general, are secret agents, detectives and spies,
recruited fron the least commendable and n^ost depraved of
the Austro-Hungarian and Serbian populations. It is upon
their depositions and reports that the property, liberty,
honour and life of every Serbian citizen are wholly depend-
ent. Tlie courts only exist in order to lend a pseudo-legal
sanction to the decisions of these creatures, who froni a
privileged class in Austria-Hungary and enjqy great social
consideration. The most trivial denunciation can cast a
r,ian into prison, and death sentences are pronounced by the
court with truly cri;ninal unconcern. Thus 55 peasants, be-
sides the schoolmasters. Glishitch vjere shot or hanged and
250 men and women were sentenced to incarceration this year
in the village of Raraatya Cin the district of Gruzha), :nerely
because some old and disused arms and old fowling pieces had
been found in the village. As for individual death sentences
pronounced by the courts or even by the gendarvaes and car-
ried out on the spot, they are quite ordinary occurrences.
iMany absolutely guiltless hostages have been done to death
in this way. One is oven tempted to think that these gen-
tlemen take a special pleasure in the carrying out of those
death penalties. In many towns thti men are hanged and on
one occasion this was even done virith a pregnant woman ~
with much ceremony in the market place, where the bodies
are sometimes left hanging for several days. And this
they call educating a savage people! Vi/hen the Serbian
people will have risen to the enviable ethic and aesthetic
heights of the Austro-Hungarian officers and begin to take ■
pleasure in these compalistic exhibitions and patronize
them, the former will presumably have become capable of
understanding the lofty culture of the latter.

4 . " IKTERNiiiSHT CAllPS'.'

The greatest crime comiaitted by the Austro-Hungarian
and Bulgarian Governments of occupation is the internment
of perfectly inoffensive and peaceful citizens and their
wholesale internment. All we hc^ve so far drawn attention
to, was only massacre in do-tail. As regards the internments.
they are nothing but wholesale massacre. Merely from the
region occupied by Austria-Hungary, more than 150.000 Serbian
subjects have been interned, including several thousands of
pld men of over 60 years of age, several thpusand vjomen and
even children from 8 to 15 years! In giving this truly ap-

-21-

palling figure, v;e are not taxing into considsration tha
150,000 Serbian soldiers, prisoners of v;ar who share the
J ate of their interned brothers in Auctria and Hungary.

We should require a whole book v;ith appalling illus-
trcitiony if vce v/anted to depict the position and existence
of these raartyrs, Vfe must abstain from doing so for the mo-
ment. We will confine ourselves to the following statement.
The fact of being internet in Austria-Hungary or in Bulgaria
really ar^ounts to being indirectly sentenced %o death. A-
bout thirty per cent of these poor wretches have died up to
the present i The rest are dragging out a miserable exist-
ence amid infini-ce hardships and unspeakable suffering while
waiting for inevitable death. In u;any concentration camps
containing on an average several thousand interned persons,
ten, twenty, and thirty deaths a day are the rule. But in
soLie cases especially in Hungary there have been as many as
200 and 300 deaths a day. There are concentration camps
where one-half of the inmates have already died. This is
not ov^ing to so'aie epidemic which claius innumerable victims.
They die of hunger and cold. There you may observe in truly
typical aiid only too frequent ca^es, how a perfectly sound
organieim ts gradually reduced to die by hunger. During the
first state the organism, although having daily to submit
to a huge deficit in nutrition, still lives upon its former
reserves. Then comes the second stage, that of a sensation
of atrocious animal irresistible hunger. The wretched suf-
ferers devour the grass they find along the hedges, although
this kind of food is strictly forbidden. They spend whole
days in turning over refuse heaps and eat everything more
or less resembling food. Their guards are powerless to re-
strain them, even with the bayonet. This state is follov^ed ,
by the third and last, the period of exhaustion and apathy.
The sufferer becoraes completely indifferent. The best food
no longer tempts him in this state of prostration and he no
longer cares for life. Fully conscious, calm and impassible
he waits for the approach of his last hour. l^Jhen he feels
it coming he lies dovm, covers' himself up c:nd dies without
uttering a word. Those around him watch him with equal in-
difference, well knoiTing that their own fate will be the
same as that of their comrade, and that it will overtake
them ere long. In countless oases the autopsy has revealed
the fact that the organi.sm was in ideal health, but that
there was not one grain of fat in the whole body.

Even those who still survive must be looked upon as
half -dead already. These poor wretches are doomed to die
within a year or two after the war. Only a very small num-
ber endowed with exceptionally vigorous constitutions will

-23-

be able to go on living and working after the via,!. The hor-
rible fate of those interned is well known to everybody in
Serbia, even to the very children. And so every man sen-
tenced to internriient upon the denunciation of some spy, is
followed by his distracted family, weeping and wailing as
one does in following the dead. It is, ther-^fore, not in
the least surprising or incomprehensible that people are
terrified ci.t the prospect of being interned. But, v/hen.
last year, a certain number of peasants from the district
of Grusha, who were sentenced to internment by the military
authorities, presuraed to hide and failed to respond to the
first summons of the authorities, all these poor people,
about forty in number, were summarily shot without further
formality. Their houses were burnt down^ all their proper-
ty destroyed and their families were interned.

We knov; very well that the civil population of Austria
as well as her army, suffers likewise from lack of food and
that it is not possible to give to the interned Serbs v^hat
others have to go short of. But this does not explain gra-
tuitous cruelty. Thus, e.g. the money which the interned
Serbs receive from their relations, either from home, or from
France or &.7itzerland, is speculated upon in a truly crimi-
nal fashion in the concentration camps. There is a rule,
in accordance with v;hich, regardless of the amount of the
sum sent, only a very small proportion of it, from 30 to 50
crovms a month, is paid over to the interned recipient. The
rest of the money is left at the disposal of tho officers
and officials to employ in all manner of speculation's. Hov,'
the inmate of an internment camp requires at lee-ot a few
hundred crovirns a month in order to supplement the wretched
food he receives in the camp -.vith such food as he can ob-
tain at exorbitant prices through intermediary agents from
the neighboring villages. For these interned people, money
means neither more now nor less than life. And so, by de-
priving these people of the money due to them, the concen-
tration camp authorities deprive them, in fact of their lives.
This criminal playing v;ith human life constitutes an essen-
tial part of the policy of every conqueror. Thus several
Austro-Hungariaji doctors attached to these camps declined
to see mor.3 than ten patients a day at a time when the death
rate in the camps was from 20 to 50 a clay.

But the m.osl importari'.-. point of all is that these poor
people ought not to be interned at all. There is no kind
of military necessity for it. During the occupation by the
enemy armies, for a ^'7hole year and half there W3.s not a
shadow of trouble, not an attempt at revolt in the whole
country. This fact need not be construed as a compliment
to the Government of occupation or as a proof of the exist-
ence of enviable conditions in Serbia. It simply proves
that the Serbian people is so exhausted with suffering that
it can only think of rest. In spite of this the Austrian

Military Governiuent has v;ithout any 'plausible reason interned
more than 150,000 inoffensive Serbs including thousands of
childreii, v;orien and old men over sixty years of age. By
these intemiiients, the fauiilies of the poor v/retches and
likewise the v;hole of the country which was thereby depriv-
ed of its last reserves of labour, were dooi'ied to starve.
And it was only after all these intern.vients and other cruel
provoco-tions, c;,s the consequence of ill-trer-tacent and not
as a preliminary act which raight have justified it, that
the revolt in Southern Serbia ensued in March, 1S17.

What is the true reason for these internn-ents without
number. They are partly explained by the stupidity of the
Austro-Hungarian administration Vifhich one sees in every
Serbian child a person guilty of high treason and a bomb-
thrower. On- the other hand it is an outcome of that crimi-
nal disregard of human life v/hich is peculiar to soldiers,
and especially to conquerors. Merely Lieutenant Vj'iedmann,
whose name has been mentioned before;, has the loss of sev-
eral thousand human lives, at least, on his conscience.
This official v;ill cause a Serb to be interned and sii'uply
because the latter has failed to reply immediately to his
question or because he has ;-aresumed to exhibit fear during
his cross examination. This is sufficient for him to do a
man to death i:ith all his fa'mily. In short, the whole method
of the Austrian Administration is directed by the inexorable
purpose of exterminating the last remnants of the Serbian
POPula"Gion.

ViTe protest emphatically against this criminal policy
of Austria-Hungary. We demand that an end be put to these
massacres of thousands of guiltless Serbian citizens.' We
appeal to the entire civilised i/orld, to raise its voice
against these unliuard-of crimes and to demand of the Ai.istro-
Hungarian Government that our countrymen be set at liberty
and sent back to their homes. If this liberation is not
brought about very speedily indeed, before the wi/.ter oets
in \."ith its rigours, all these! people a.re doomed to die
within the next fevj monxhs.

B. THE REGION OCCUPIED BY BULGARIA.

Before the beginning to depict the situc^tion in the Bul-
garian part of Serbia, v/e feel bound to drav; attention to
one very important fact which ought to gratify all Socialists
in general and Balkan Socialists in particular, namely, that
one ought to draw a sharp .distinction between the ruling
classes of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian people. One of the
Signatories of this Memorandum has had the opportunity dur-
ing the earlier months of the occupation of acquiring per-
sonal knowledge of both administrations, the Bulgarian and
the Austro-Hungarian. The Bulgarian common soldier, i.e.

»■

the Bulgarian people under arms has everyv\fhere, wherever
he has- come in contact with it, produced a good iuipression
upon all the Serbian population. During the early dc^ys of
the invasion, whan every soldier possessed, so to So-y, povj-
er of life and death over the vanquished population, when
h'is discretionary powers were unlimited and his responsi-
bility ali-iost nil, while there was as yet no judicial order
in those, regions, conditions virere far better in the ter-
ritory conjured by the Bulgarian army. There v;as far u:ore
liberty u,nd order than later on when the Government of oc-
cupation hcod established itself there and ''official" order
was introduced by the ruling classes. During this first
period cases of murder, outrage and looting were unknovirn
and none ..io-de a pcstiiue of ill-using the popuiatio::. . The
3ituatio.n in the ea,3tern ^jaro of Serbia (which xvas occu-
pied by the Bulgers), was at that time better ctnd less in-
tolerable than that in the IVest which was occupied by the
Germans and Austrians* The Bulgarian com...on soldier felt
sympathetic towards the Serbs to ivhom he was attracted by
the kinship of race which unites them, and he fully apprec-
iated the horrible tragedy of our position. It often hap-
pened that these sons of the Bulgarian people wept in our
presence over the ruin of Serbia and were profoundly unhappy
■CO see Bulgaria and Serbia dragged once more for the third
tiuie, into a fratricidal war. Some of them even prophesied
S, dark and -diaastrous future for Bulgaria for heaving con-
sented to foment discord betvjeen the Bdkan peoples. It
would be fcLlse to pretend th^t none but Socialists spoke in'
this, way because among the BulgariaJi soldiers who expressed
such opinions, there v;ere both ignorant peasants c^nd humble
townspeople devoid of c*,ll politicc*.l education. It is only
natural, moreover, thc*,t this u,ltogether instinctive senti-
ment of solidarity should be so highly developed among the
Balkan peoples, since they were all equally und^r the Turk-
ish yoke, the slavery of v;hich they endured for centuries.
More especially this sentiment is bound to persist between
the Serbs and the Bulgars who are rec;,lly only one people,
speaking different dialects of one and the same language.

But a change came over the situation with the arrival
of the masters of Sofia and the official policy dictated
by the reactionary gang of brigands commanded by Radoslavoff .
These people who have terrorized their own countrymen for
decades, were little inclined to show consideration to the
completely vanquished population of an occupied region.
By an incredible system of outrage and a policy of method-
ical extermination of the Serbs these criminals seek to
prepare the ground for a Bulgarian hegemony in the Balkans
and the establishment of a Bulgarian Eopire under the scep-
ter of the Coburgs. The crimes committed against the Serbian
people by these individuals are without number and our re-
port would grow far too long, v^ere we to describe in detail

-35-

the situa-tion in the Serbiaxi territory occupied by Bulgaria,
as we have done with regard to the territory governed by
Austria- Hungary. All that has been said already about the
Austro-Hunfyarv administration is equally true of the Bul-
garian with this difference, that what has been .sa.id c.,bout
Austria-Hungary raist be multiplied by itself, as it vjere. in
order to be applicable to the Bulgarian administration.

Bad as they are, courts at least exist in the Austro-
Hungarian part. There is at least socie attecipt, froii time
to tiiue, to clothe the despotism of the authorities in sorae
sort of legal form. Soraetirnes, and were it only in appear-
ance, public opinion is considered. One feels, and were it
ever so slightly, restrained by vague forms of international
law and morality.

All this ceases completely as soon as you enter the do-
main of the Bulgarian administration. Cross the iiorava river
and you find yourself in Asia. The ruling classes of Bulgar-
ia have proved the.t if they are not very good allies of the
Turks they are at least their very apt pupils. The Bul-
garian part of Serbia knows nothing of courts. Only quite
recently has a court been established in Nish, v;hich has to
do duty for the whole of the occupied territory of Serbia.
It is the police, recruited from the very dregs of the pop-
ulace, which is invested with unlimited powers. The personal
liberty of every Serb citizen, no less than his life, de-
pends wholly and solely upon the arbitrary pleasure of every
Bulgarian police agent or gendarme. Beatings inflicted upon
men, women, children and old men are even more comnion than
V7ithin Austro-Hungarian territory. Old men of over 60 years
of age - and that not only in the country but also in the
towns - receive seventy-five blows with a stick for failing
to salute a gendarme. A woman, who has a Bulgarian officer
living in her house, and it goes without saying that he does
not pay his landlady anythi.ag - is sentenced to twenty-five
blows with a stick if the officer fancies that the tablecloth
■.vhich x& laid in his room is not l3ss fine that that of the
mistress of the house. A Serbian judge living in Chupria,
a man of superior education, is compelled every day to saw
v¥00d for the schoolmistresses who lodge gratis in his house
in order to avoid being beaten. In these regions the Serbs
are reduced to a veritable state of slavery such as that of .
which they were subjected tvjo centuries ago under the Turks.

In the Austro-Hungarian region there is at least a sem-
blance of public order. As for the region occupied by the
Bulgars, the most elementary guarantee for public safety is
conspicuous by its absence. Al^vays under threat of the pen-
alty of death, the Bulgarian authorities resort to exactions
and contributions to such an extent that many Serbs have been
obliged to fly to the other side of the Iiorava into the Aus-
trian domain. Numerous bands of brigands, tolerated by the

authorities, roam about the country plundering and murdering
ae they go. Not infrequently these bandits are even secret-
ly in league with the Bulgarian Officers, police agents and
gendarmes. Such are the authorities which rule today in oc-
cupied Serbia. This is hov they promote the happiness of
-Macedonia and "liberated Eastern Serbia."

The liraits of our report do not permit us to depict all
these abuses in detail. For this reason we 'Till confine our-
selves to drawing attention to several special features of
the Bulgarian Government of Occupation vJhich are so unique
in character that they are v;ithout parallel even in the Aus-
t r o -Hungar i an do main .

1. POLICY OF DENATIONALIZATION.

The Austro -Hungarian Administration v;as by no means in-
nocent of a certain tendency to modify the national culture
of the Serbs, and of aspiring to "Croaticize" and "Magyarize"
the school youth. It also attempted a clerical propaganda
among the population, v/hich it desired to see imbued v/ith
this spirit. But it achieved very poor results in this di-
rection. The attempt to uake the Serbian population into a
priest-ridden community was foredoomed to failure from the
outset, because from a religious point of view, the Serbs
are decidedly emancipated. The Church, as a political and
social institution, possesses no importajice and no povjer
with us. The clergy only exercise a very slight influence
in politics. With us it is not the priests who drav7 the pop-
ulace sifter them. On the contrary, it is the masses who
exert their influence upon the clergy. Only such priests
as have devoted themselves energetically to the cause of
democracy, have succeeded in playing a leading part in our
country.

But all that has been done in this respect in the
Austro-Hungarian domem, cannot be compared with the policy
of denationalization as pursued by the Bulgars, The Bul-
garian ruling classes deny on principle, the existence of
the Serbian race throughout the whole of the territory they
have conquered, although it is precisely this region which
furnished our land with its greatest national heroes v;ho
fought one hundred years ago in the Serbian Insurrection
against the Turks, for Serbia's liberty and independence
and died for it (Stevan Sindjelitch, from Nish District, ^^
and.Hajduk Veljko, from Negotin, etc.). But whoever would
today in this occupied region declare himself a member of
the Serb nation and insist upon this description, would im-
mediately be arraigned for high treason and vrould have signed
his own death-warrant. All Serbian writings, not only the
books in the public libraries, but even those found in pri-
vate dwellings, are being requisitioned and burnt. It is
expressly forbidden, even in private intercourse ^ to write
Serbian.

Even the official papsr of txie allied domain, tna orga.n
of the Austro-Hungarian Millitary Government, is severely
prohibited throughout tae teri'itory occupied ly the Bul-
gars, solely because it is published in Croatian, i.e. in
Serbian, since "Croat" and "Serb" are only two different
designations . for the same language and the sane people.
It is likewise forbidden to bear Serbian naraes. One of
the signatories of this .Piernoranduiu, Popovitch, could oily
obtain a passpoxt.in Chupria (a tov^n .situated in Ihe region
occupied by the Bulgars) under the name of "Popoff", i.e.
as a Bulgar. Ne:7born infants are only given Bulgar bap-
tismal names by the Bulgarian priests, so that the faith-
ful will have to have thern re-named after the war. Only
Bulgarian is taught In the primary schools and instruction
is given solely by Bulgarian schoolmasters and mistresses.
It is the same in ecclesiastical matters. All scholastic
and ecclesiastical appointments and all offices in munici-
pal administration are filled by Bulgars. Throughout the
entire territory occupied by the Bulgars you will not find
even one Serbian teacher or priest. All have been interned
or even murdered except those who were compelled under the
threat of death to, sign statements declaring that they are
Bulgars and that the districts occupied by the Bulgars, are
all Bulgarian lands . The other Serbian officials have been
similarly dealt with, e::cepting only a rery few. In proof
of this, we can only quote a few cases which impressed
themselves particularly upon our memories. For readily
comprenensible reasons v/e were unable to carry away sys- ■
tematically coiapiled mateiial and '.vritten evidence from
our country. Here are the cases in question:

(1) In the town of Vranja ti-iere were killed, Alcsentie
lUshitch, priest and George Antitch, a former member of the
Serbian .Parliament for tnat to^.'n.

(2)0ne night, in November I9I3, the Arcn-priest Stevan
Komnenovitch, the priests Michailo Igniatovitch, Yosif Pop-
ovitch, Trandafil Kotsitch, Svetolik Antonievitch and the
schoolmaster Marko Yokovitch were led away from the town
of Leskovatz, with their hands pinioned. T^vo years passed
without any of these men having given a sign of life to his
family as is usually done by interned persons. But even-
tually the peasants discovered, not far from the mouth of
the Morava, several corpses, long-haired and with long
beards, and showing signs of a violent death. (The ortho-
dox priests of the East wear their hair and beards long in
conformity ^;ith their order) . Tnere can be no doubt but
that these were the bodies of these unfortunate men, \7ho
had been foully done to death,

(3) One night the Bulgarian authorities carried away
the priest Onufrie Popovitch from Vlasotintsi. Some time
afterwards the priest *s head, hidden under a heap of stones,
was discovered by his family.

-23-

(^) In th3 village of Prekoptchelitza, the Bulgarian '
authorities began by looting tne Louse of a priest. Petal
Tsvetkovitch, in order to rob hin of 5>000 dinars in gold,
and in the end they murdered hiin.

(5) On Noveir.ber S^h, I915, the Bulrarian authorities
carried away 2^ Serbian priests from the town of Nish, in-
cluding Luka Harianovitch, Yovan X. Popovitch, Yanlco Yanko-
vitch, Dobrosav Markovitch and Koyitch, Not a sign of life
from these men has ever reached trxeir families.

(6) On November, 15 tlx, 1915* ^ second batch of priests
was carried away from Nish, including Tsvetko Bogdanovitch,
George Yankovitch and Milan Tsvetkovitch, It is hot known to
this day what has become of them or rather, one knov/s it on-
ly too well .

(7) On November l^tn, 1915* the Bulgars deported from
Nish a retired official, Vessa liilovanovitch, brotner of
the late Minister for Foreign Affairs and Ser'oiy,n Prime
Minister Dr. Milovan Milovanovi t en . His '.vife in despair
finally approacned tne Bulgarian general Ratcho Petroff,

a former personal friend of Dr. Milovanovitcn. General
Petroff replied by sending ner the following official re-
port: "The name of Vessa Milcvanovitch is not on the list
of interned persons."

(£i) Three priests, George Petrovitch, Sima Yovanovitch
and Vladimir Rashitch were taken away from the tov;n of
Zayetchax. They v;ere all three murdered on tne road to
Vidin, and their bodies thrown into a ditch, vfhere they
were devoured by the village dogs. The peasants found ■ .
nothing left of the bodies, to bury them, but the bones,

(9) The priest Pavle Yovanovitch, of the village of
Veliko Yasikovo, was killed in the same manner. His v;ife
subsequently found the body and had it biuried.

(10) In March, I917 , four citizens of the town of
Prokuplie and a priest Radivoye Vuchinitch, were killed
in the open street by the Bulgars .

(11) The priest Trayko, of the village of Turekovatz,
was taken away and nothing has been neard of him since.
His daughter who was accueed of being secretly in league
with the Serbian comitadjis, was hanged. But before be-
ing hanged, she was subjected to atrocious tortures by
being flogged with a strand of barbed wire. Tne young
girl's sister, wife of tne book-seller I. Obrenovitch of
Leskovatz, was so cruelly beaten, tnat not only -were all
hex teeth knocked out, but sne '.^ ent uad within two aays

of the exxcution. Sne died snoxtly aftenvards. Their
brother Vassa, a priest, was lilcev/ise taken away and uur-

-29-

dered together ivith his son, a Icia of l6. And all these
victims were made in one fci.r.iily alone I

2.. DEPORT ATIOF AND EXTERMIHATIOI? OF THE SERBIAN

POPULATION.

A very large number of Serbs whom, it was not possible
to kill in Serbia have been deported to Asia Ilinor. ^.'"hole
families from Eastern Serbia, women, children and old men
were dragged by force from their homes and carried off to
Asia Minor. And this is not intended for personal and in-
dividual punishment. . It is a system, corresponding to a
definite policy. All elements capable of offering any
effective national resistance are first to be eliivdnated
from that part of Serbia, and then tne rest of the popu- '
lation is to be Bulgarized. It goes v/ithout saying that
the Bulgars have here set taeuselves an unrealizable aim,
as from this point of view Eastern Serbia does not in the ■
least resemble Macedonia. Tne Slav population of Ilacedonia
easily becomes either Serbian or Bulgarian. But as for
Eastern Serbia, its national and ethical pnysiognomy is
far too pronounced to perm.it of the country becoming de-
nationalized. To try to Bulgarize that part of Serbia is
as stupid as vjould be an attempt on the part of our Gov-
erm.iant to Serbicize the tov/n of Sofia and the neighbor-
ing country bordering on Serbia,

These methods of denationalization, v.hich the Bulgars
have copied from the Turks, can only result in the barbarous
extermination of the harmdess and unprotected Serbian pop-
ulation. Those countless Serbian families which have been
deported to Asia Minor, are all doomed to perish. These
deportations are in fact nothing but wholesale executions
of Serbs, similar to the massacres of the Armenians or-
ganized hy Sultan Abdul Hamid and the Young Turks.

The revolt^ ^7hich broke out in March 1917 in Southern
Serbia, more especially in Bulgarian territory, furnished
the Bulgarian authorities with a splendid opportunity of
displaying all the bestial cruelty by v/hich they are in-
spired. It is difficult to say with certainty how it was
possible for this r evolt to take place. But vi/hat is be-
yond all doubt is that the Serbian civil population had
practically no hand in it. The whole insurrection was
planned and carried out by Serbian soldiers and comitadjis
who had succedded in invading tne authorities. These con-
spirators Were Very probably supported by Bulgarian and
Austro-Hungarian deserters discontented with tiaeir fate.
Nevertheless it was the innocent population vjhich wbs
made to answer for the <vnole business. As the Serbian
population had been disarmed by the authorities since the
very beerinning of the- occupation, it was not in a condition

to oppose tha insurgents or bo " esist them. It Wo-s willy-
nilly compelled to provide tnaui wx'Ai food and Todging and
to assist then in other v/ays . It goes v.'ithout saying that
these acts were interpreted by th^ Bulgarian and the Austro-
Hungarian authorities as a direct participation in the re-
volt and that these unfortunate people were put to death
for them. And when they sought to defend themselves "be-
fore the Authorities, pleading that it had been physically
impossible for them to resist the insurgents, they almost
invariably received this incredibly cynical reply: "It was
your duty to resits all demands on the part of these men
and to let yourselves be killed, if need be. But since
you jTTould not be killed by them, we are going to do it
instead."

About 20,000 Serbs v/ere killed under this pretext, of
whom 3iOOO at the outside had tal:en part in the rebellion,.
All the rest belon^^d to the innocent civil population.
Neither women oor children v/ere spared. The wife of Gaya '
Nikolitch, a former member of Parliament, was shot after
having been kept under arrest for a vireek witnout food or
water, for having started a hospital in Lebane during the
revolt for tne purpose of tending tiie victims of the in-
surrection. Thousands of women and children 'were interned
and others thrown into prison. Thirty-six villages near
Leskovats were completely depopulated. Families without '
number were left without house or home. Almost tne entire
male population of Nish, some ^,000 men was deported. One
batch was sent by train to Pirot. The rest had to go on

foot - and have never come back One police official -

in the neighborhood of Nish boasted in company of having
with his own hands alone killed about 3OO Serbs. "It was
rather awkward at first", explained this meiitorious in-
dividual, "it always took several slashes with the knife;
but uhen I got into the way of it a bit, the job was quite
easy. One thrust, and the man vi/as dead." It is very like-
ly that in his zeal this Bulgar should have somev/hat ex-
aggerated the facts. It is, however, none the less true
that this incident is extremely characteristic of the
mentality of the Bulgars in occupation.

The cruelty of the Bulgarian authorities is so great
and so revolting that it sometimes ends by rousing the indig-
nation of the German soldiers garrisoned there, and the lat-
ter even try to protect the Serbian civilians v7ho are be-
ing maltreated by their allies. In mixed garrisons, rela-
tions are very strained bet'.j'een Germans and Bulgars. Thus,
e.g. the Town of Nish is divided by the main street into
two sharply distinct zones. A German soldier cannot enter
the Bulgarian zone except by special permission and only
strictly on business. The same applies to the Bulgarian
soldiers with regard to tne Gc^rman zone.

-31-

Truly the barbarity of the Bulgarian ruling powers
exceeds all limits .

CONCLUStOH-

Our object in drawing up this rnemoranduKi v»as to reveal
to the whole world vjhat crimcJS are being coraraitted by the
Bulgarian and Austro-Hungarian ruling pov;ers against the
Serbs, and to brand them as they deserve. But we do not
think for one irionient of confounding the people with their
rulers, ^e do not in the least v/ant to preach vengeance
against the people of Bulgaria or against the peoples of
the Austro-Hungarian Mornarchy. The common soldiers,
whether Austro-Kungarian, Bulgarian or Gterman, have al-
most shown sympathy and pity for the Serbian people in
the horrible crisis it is undergoing at prssent. Peoples
can never go on hating each other very deeply for any
length of time. At the worst, they can only be misled
and blinded for a moment by chauvinists a,nd the men in
po-^er. During the earlier months of the occupation
the German soldiers often shared their food with the Serb-
ian vj-omen and children, even as vve saw Serbian women shar-
ing their poor bread ration with the famished Austro-
Hungarian soldiers who go from house to house ■ begging
for t he food. This is the most touching display of the
spontaneous solidarity of the great international class
of those 'Who are oppressed and exploited, and deprived
of their rights. Those who are not divided into invaded
and invaders and vThose misery is equally great in both
camps .

OUR yjEIIORANDUIvI PURSUES THE FOLLOV'IHG AlliS:

(1) V'e want to urge tnc Russo-Hollando Scandinavian
Committee to develop an energetic activity in favor of pro-
tecting the Serbian population .vhich nas hitherto been pro-
tected by nobody and forgotten by all the world. In the
first place v^e would call upon it tQ work upon the Soc-
ialists of the Central Empires so that they may fight the
policy of their Governments in occupied Serbia.

(2) V.'a want especially to urge the Social Democrats
of Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria to develop a more ener-
getic activity both in and out of Parliament in order to
help to save the last remnants of the Serbian population
in the occupied regions. Their first duty should be to
demand immediately from their Governments that all intern-
ed Serbs be sent back to their homes. They must demand

-32-

this release not only for the interned oivilia.ns but also
for the prisoners of war vmo nave on the whole, with very-
few exceptions been separated from their families ever siixe
the first Balkan ^ar, for- five years, in fact. There is
really no military necessity for keeping these poor people
in camps. They have all been disarmed and even on their
return to Serbia they would still find themselves in terri-
tory occupied by Austro-Hungarians and Bulgars, and under
the unlimited power of those in occupation.

(3) We want to draw the attention, of the civilized
world to the terrible distress which prevail^ w-t this mo-
ment in Serbia, so that speedy assistance bota in money
and in food, may be forthcoming for tnis people that nas
been left so far to its fate. Except for the two visits
referred to, one from the AaeriCc-n Mission a.nd one from
the Swiss, who came last year to distribute o, little food
and clotning ar.iong tne population of Biitiade, Serbia has
so far received notning from Europe, o-nd especially from
our Allies, e:^cept verbal encourai3ei.»ent .

{H-) Y\e want the Serbian Gove"xn;.ient, as well as the
other Entente Governments to display greater interest in
the Serbian population which is really not in a state,
under present conditions to endure ^ unaided, the last
phase of the war.

(5) And we desire to show by this Memorandum that
th6 vital need of the Serbian people is not a prolongation
of the war, but the speedy conclusion of peace. Tnis is
the only condition under which the final ruin of the Serb-
ian people can be prevented, and the proletariats of the
whole world succeed in placing their respective Govern-
ments in the dock for the crimes which, as the last Con-
gress of the Social Democrat Party in Vienna so truly
expressed it, are not only acts of tyranny against the
conquered peoples but also an offense against the peoples
in the names of whom they have been committed.

Stockholm, November, 1917 .

For the Serbian Social Democracy,

DUSHAN POPOVITCH, T. KATZLEROVITCH,

Secretary of tne Party. Member of the Serbian

Parliament .

-53-

GERIfiAN ATROCITIES IN SERBIA.
A cynical avowal by a German \?rlter.
(Translated from "Die Schaubuehne" January 4, 1917.)

"Die Schaubuehne" a monthly political,
artistic and economic review, published in
Germany, printed in its number of January
4, 1917, above the signature of Oskar I'ilaurus
Fontana, a German writer and a reserve offi-
cer .in the German Army, who accompanied the
German troops to Serbia, the following ac-
count of that military expedition. It re-
quires no comment. ^^

"On the field of battle, military condemnations are pro-
nounced in very summary fashion. There is almost no prelim-
inary investigation, neither prosecutor nor defender are
present. The prisoners face their judges alone and await the
verdict, which can only bg liberty or death. There is no
penal servitude, no confinement in chains, the sentence is
pronounced in the open air and by a judge who usually com-
mands a regiment. A shell may, in an hour's time, transform
him into a mass of crushed flesh and bones, so the fate of
the accused rran is of no importance whatever in this lost
corner of territory, where the houses seem to sleep, sur-
rounded by haystacks which look as if they had existed for
centuries. Ho one utters a word for or against him. In two
minutes the accused is forgotten, be he still in life and
smiling, or lying stretched on the ground, his limbs stiff
in death. He is trampled upon and crushed like some trouble-
some insect. It does not last long, his fate interests no one
His mother, his children, his father, his brothers, his
peasant-farm, all that is gone, before one has time to think
of it, even before the condemned man realizes i% himself.

"One morning, I savf a young peasant; a captain was push-
ing him gently before him as if he were merely going with him
to requisition a haystack. In this scene there was, however,
something which gripjped one. There was a look in this young
man's eyes, such as I have never seen and such as m.ade m.e ask
'What is it all about?' The captain and the young peasant
disappeared. A few seconds later I heard rifle fire. I made
inquiries and was told 'a young comitadjis, who was captured
here during a surprise attack, has just been shot'. It was
the young man I had just seen and then I understood what the
indescribable look in his eyes was; it was death I had read
there .

"Some days later, during a march, we came to a house
which was on fire. It was a signal. Shrapnel rained on us.

-.^4-

The soldiers put o^at the_iire, ana orougnt e.long three v/ori-^n
ana an old iLan, when they had founa near the firo. The-y are
acc-j-sea of having set the house on firs. They reply 'No.'
They are ordered to confess. They reply: 'We did nothing.
It is our house which is burning; the others set it on fire'.-
They are thea asked: 'How many Serbian troops passed here?'
They replj: 'We do not know': The major says 'Shoot them'.

"The tX0'Q)ps halt. We look on, breathless, at the dran.a;
We are so young to ma,ke war. No one tells these women in
their own native tongue what is going to bo .done to them.
But they have understood, they lower their eyes like an
animal that awaits the fatal stroke. They do not protest. A
momentary shudder passes over thisir bodies. Tney can not be-
lievo it, they do not understand, their glances right and
left seek salvation, some miracl;^. They march slowly with
dragging feet. Before their condemnation they had looked
fixedly at some of us , a mute regard v.ithout tears, so pierc-
ing, that we are forced to low^sr our eyes. Then v;e hear the
crackling of the riflv^s.

"Half an hour later soldi^^rs returning from a reconnais-
sance brought in an old peasant and his eon, a j'-outh of
seventeen. They had fired once, somewhere, on the Austrians,
at Iciast they are accused of h„ving aon^.; so. Thcjy reply with
a haughty air: 'No. ' And they persist in their denial. They
are asked: 'What do you know of the Serbs? How many have
passed this v;ay?' They reply: 'We know nothing, we have seen
no one'. The major orders: 'Shoot them I' ,

"The father, who had been stanaing ^ith lowered head, on
hearing the order, turns his eyes toward his son, who is on
the left. The son makes the sa,me movement towards the
father. Their eyes meet and they take farewell of one an-
other; a tear for a moment glistens on the pupils whicn are
dilated till they seem to fill their whols eyes. The look of
the son becomes more energetic: 'I can not die', he cries,'!
am only seventeen years old. I have fift^r years to live, I
will flee, I will flee'. The father prays, begs and implores
and again regaras his son, 'Let them be shot'.

"Who will commana the firing paity? Who will do the
shooting? There is a long silence. Then someone remembers a
volunteer who had declared he would ].ike to kill traitors
with his own hands. I know him very well. He has his pockets
full of love letters which he reads to his comrades, and an-
other packet of them in his knapsack. He goes off with two
soldiers to carry out his mission. The son walks with a
swinging step but the old father drags his feet. Tiiey decend
a slope and enter a cornfield. They 'await the firing party.
Heavens, how long the time seems; A soft-hearted lieutenant
who is in mourning for his mother, twists his hands nervously.

do-

taps the trunk of a tree and piclzs u-o mecnanically the dried
leaves lying on the ground. A volley, then a second. I still
seem to see the wandering glance of the old father. Later I
learned that the young n'.an had tried xo flee. The escort
caught up with him, hoxTever, and he again surrendered. The eld
man could not stand on his feet. They v:ere forced to shoot him
lying down,

"Some months later, t-7o prisoners ivere brought in suspect-
ed of being ' comitadjis' . Both are old men. One is a reserve
soldier. He wears, it is true, the costume of a peasant but
his military cap, of curious shape, of violent color, shor/s he
is a soldier. It may have been that he too, an hour ago fired
on us. But he is a soldier, a prisoner of war. Kis expression-
less eyes glance from one person to another, happy and confi-
dent. He is saved. But the second is probably a brigand. He
implores, he takes oath v-olubly,but he has a look of cunning and
just as if "it were not his head that is at stake he bargains for
it as if it r, ere something he hac to sell,

"I would have liked to have cal]. ed out to him 'your head is
at stake' . He became confused in his statements, more and more
obstinate, he irritates everybody and in the end he is sentenced
to be hanged. He remains before us in his rage, without a coat,
clutching his blanket, the symbol of life in these countries,
for in his mountains one may freeze to death in the night with-
out it. He remains v.ith his sly peasant's face, an old visage
which resembles a bird's beak; he listens to the sound of words
he does not understand, reading their meaning on the lips, in
the eyes and on the hands of those addressing him. A shudder
passes over his body, and v^ith a gesture that reveals every-
thing he throws, no, he drops., his blanket, his sole fortune,
become suddenly a useless incumbrance. It is touching to see
this single movement of a life accepting death. It is his
death agony, the blanket lying on the rocks at his feet will
never cover him again.

"Where is the sergeant? Here he comes. The sergeant is a
Vinnese, a ladies' hairdresser. He has already tried his hand
at hanging people. He will be charged with this execution. The
Serb has turned his back to us. He goes off with the man who
will end his lifej he m.arches bent but with a resolute step,
singing a long and melancholy Slav melody. He sings his own
death song. He marches more and more proudly, drawing himself
more and more erect at every step.

"He is tv;o hundred yards from us, near a tree, but he
still continues to sing. Everyone looks at him through their
field glasses. As for me, I ourn my head away. I think, oh
gian, oh rnanl I recall how the sergeant has often spoken to us
at table of the women whose hair he had dressed, their negliges,
blond hair, bla.ck hair, auburn curls - I see his hands in
their soft, silken tresses, and the same hands putting a rope
round a man's neck. It is finished. The field' glasses drop.
The column at once resumes its march. I throw a glance at the •
tree. The Serb, as if he were leaning against it7 is upright,
stiff, his feet touch his blanket, lying in the stones, still
ivarm, but lost, purposeless, useless."

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